Canada

John Baird may be Canada’s new top diplomat, but that won’t prevent Stephen Harper’s favourite political pit bull from baring his teeth on the international stage from time to time.

Baird’s promotion to foreign affairs in Wednesday’s cabinet shuffle was taken as a sign by some that one of the prime minister’s fiercest partisans would have to muzzle his growl and demur to the niceties of international diplomacy.

But Baird showed no sign of an impending personality makeover when he characterized his new job in confrontational terms as he left Rideau Hall.

“I fight hard for what I believe in,” Baird said, firing off freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law as examples of those beliefs.

Some of the Harper’s strongest foreign policy critics applauded the selection of Baird, citing his tough, non-compromising style as a perfect fit for his new job. But they also warned of a tough road ahead in elevating what they view as Canada’s sunken standing on the international stage.

However, Baird has handled some tough political jobs in the last few years, including treasury board president, environment minister and government House leader in a bitterly fractious minority Parliament.

“This is a man who doesn’t look like he will shrink from disagreement,” said Paul Heinbecker, Canada’s longest-serving United Nations ambassador and a frequent critic of the Conservatives’ performance on the international stage.

“Diplomacy is not, contrary to the popular view, a subject of everybody being nice to everybody else,” Heinbecker added. “It’s a place where you go to represent your values and defend your interests.”

Baird has all the attributes of a good foreign minister, including his “strong personality.” But the fact that he is a competent minister, who has the ear of his prime minister, will be a tonic to foreign affairs department officials who have been marginalized and demoralized by Harper’s firm grip on the country’s foreign policy reins for the last five years, said Heinbecker. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Harper finally wins majority

Canadian voters have radically redrawn the country’s political landscape, handing the Conservative Party its long-sought majority in an election that decimated the Bloc Qubcois and humbled the Liberals.

For the first time in history, the New Democratic Party will form the Official Opposition after an extraordinary breakthrough that propelled the party to more than 100 seats.

The extent of the transformation is startling. The Liberals now hold just four seats west of Guelph, Ont. The Conservatives, formerly shunned by Toronto voters, won nearly half of the seats in that city, twice as many as the Liberals.

The Bloc Qubcois, which defined Quebec federal politics for two decades, no longer qualifies for official party status. And Green Party Leader Elizabeth May won the partyÕs first seat, and the right to a place in the next election’s debates.

Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe lost his seat and resigned. Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff lost his riding. Both defeated leaders were squeezed, like many of their candidates, between growth in Conservative support and Jack Layton’s surging New Democrats.

The night belonged to Stephen Harper, who put his party over the top after five years of minority government and becomes just the third Conservative leader since Confederation to win triple victories. (Source: Globe & Mail)

Tories blame Ignatieff for losing bid for UN seat

After losing its bid for a coveted seat on the UN Security Council to Portugal on Tuesday, the Conservative government responded by defending its campaign and blaming Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.

“I do not think that this is a repudiation of Canada’s foreign policy,” Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “Canada ran a campaign based on principle; we ran a strong campaign. Unfortunately, back home in Canada, the leader of the opposition determined that Canada does not speak with one voice.

“In my view, (Ignatieff’s statements) were used as an issue to prevent Canada from succeeding to the Security Council.”

Ignatieff had accused the Harper government of ignoring the UN during its four years in office.

“This is a government that for four years has basically ignored the United Nations and now is suddenly showing up saying, ‘Hey, put us on the council,'” Ignatieff said in September.

Ignatieff responded Tuesday afternoon by saying it was a “sad day” for Canada and the international community has sent the Conservatives a message.

“This is the first time in sixty years we’ve failed to secure a seat on an institution that this country helped found,” he told reporters, noting the roles in the UN played by former prime ministers Lester Pearson and Brian Mulroney. “This is a pretty depressing story about the government’s performance on foreign policy.”

Ignatieff called the blame the Tories laid at his feet “ridiculous. (Source: CTV News)

G8 funds flood Clement’s riding: Liberals

The Opposition Liberals are accusing the Conservative government of blowing $50 million of G8 summit-related spending in Industry Minister Tony Clement’s riding in an attempt to boost his chances of re-election.

Industry Minister Tony Clement has been under fire for weeks in the House of Commons over federal spending in his central Ontario riding of Muskoka-Parry Sound ahead of the G8 summit in Huntsville.

Dubbing the presentation the “Tour de Pork,” the MPs said most of the money has been spent on projects that are nowhere near delegates during the one-day G8 summit and that will not be completed in time for the event.

The sites flaunted by the Liberals include a $2-million street improvement project for Port Severn, 135 kilometres away from the summit site in Huntsville, as well as a $700,000 main street and bridge improvement project in the small town of Kearney, 42 kilometres from the summit site

The minister, Holland said, needs to justify how he can say the projects have anything to do with the G8, when most of them will never be seen by delegates.

“What has happened here is under the guise of G8,” Holland told reporters. “It has nothing to do with G8. They’re blowing $50 million to boost the electoral prospects of a minister, and we think that that is entirely inappropriate.” (Source: CBC News)

Planning for the Future

For the past two years, the federal government and provincial finance ministers have been looking at what to do to help Canadians better prepare for retirement.

When the bottom fell out of the stock market in the financial crisis that swept the world in 2008, company pensions and registered retirement savings plans were hit hard. It was feared that some pension plans would not be able to meet their obligations to current and future retirees — and that some retirees would have no pension at all if the companies they worked for went bankrupt.

People who had to rely on RRSP savings faced the prospect of having to work several years longer than planned to make up for their losses.

While markets have recovered much of what they gave up and many plans that were at risk are solvent again, Canadians are still worried about what their retirements will look like.

An Ipsos Reid poll commissioned for the Canadian Institute of Actuaries suggests 42 per cent of Canadians over the age of 45 feel they are not financially prepared to live comfortably after they leave the workforce.

Seventy-two per cent said they were concerned about maintaining a reasonable standard of living in retirement.

A similar poll done by Ipsos Reid in November 2006 for BMO Financial Group suggested that 70 per cent of Canadians don’t feel they’re on track with their retirement savings — or don’t know if they’re on track. (Source: CBC News)